Watched a master tech use a vacuum gauge on a '92 Civic and it changed how I diagnose everything
I was 22, working at a shop in Bakersfield, and this old guy named Ray had been turning wrenches for 35 years. He watched me throw parts at a rough idle for two days, then walked over with a vacuum gauge and hooked it up in about 90 seconds. The needle was bouncing between 12 and 17 inches, and he said that flutter meant a burnt valve, not the fuel issue I was chasing. I had already swapped the plugs, wires, and a $200 sensor hoping something would stick. He pulled the head that afternoon and sure enough, number 3 exhaust valve was torched. That gauge cost like $25 and he told me he had been using the same one since the Reagan years. These days everyone just grabs a scanner and reads codes, but half the time the code is pointing you in the wrong direction anyway. Any of you still keep a vacuum gauge in your box, or am I just old school for thinking it belongs there?